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Carroll Township's
a very rural area

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in northern Ohio
right on Lake Erie.

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Lake Erie's always
been very important

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to Carroll Township
and its residents.

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We use it for drinking
water, we treat it,

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and it's really our livelihood.

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Lake Erie, for what
unknown reason,

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suddenly the toxin level
spiked and that got

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through the treatment system.

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It was indicated to me that
it is pretty dangerous.

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Cyanotoxins can cause skin
rashes, headache, nausea,

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vomiting, stomach problems,
nervous system problems,

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liver damage to death.

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We sampled and we had about
two and a half times the limit

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from the World Health
Organization.

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The second sample was
approximately 3.5 times.

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Our plant wasn't set

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up to handle what was
coming in from Lake Erie.

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One of my biggest worries
was actually hurting someone

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or even worse.

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So we shut it off right
away, shut everything off.

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We had a very close
call that day.

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The last thing you want to
do is produce an unsafe water

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and allow your people
to drink it.

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What we need is a
better way to track

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and predict these cyanobacteria
entries from our source water

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so that we can make sure that
this never happens again.

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A lot of times we'll
find out after the fact

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that there's a problem with
cyanobacteria in the water

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because the blooms
already occur.

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We either get results of
sick animals or sick people.

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We need a paradigm shift.

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We need to go from being
constantly reactive

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to these blooms too having
a capability that allows us

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to become proactive, and the US
Environmental Protection Agency

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has been very encouraging of
allowing for some high-risk,

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high-reward projects
and that allowed us

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to think outside the box
- way outside the box.

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We've been fortunate enough
to make use of a sensor

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on the International Space
Station call HICO, which stands

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for the Hyperspectral Imager
for the Coastal Ocean.

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HICO consists of two
instruments, one is a camera,

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and the second instrument
is a spectrophotometer,

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which actually gives
us the spectrum

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of light leaving that water.

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The camera on a cell
phone for example contains

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about three bands and
data in a red channel,

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a green channel and
a blue channel.

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HICO gathers light from the red,
orange, yellow, green, blue,

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indigo, and violet
part spectrum.

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So using this technology
we were able

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to now detect those
water quality parameters

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such as water clarity, what the
phytoplankton concentration is

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your water, how much light is
being absorbed in your water,

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as well as what's the
distribution of cyanobacteria

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in those waters, and does

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that concentration
pose a health hazard.

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So what this means is instead
of waiting for someone to report

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that there's a problem
with cyanobacteria blooms,

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we can monitor these
water bodies from space,

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and get information
that we can rapidly get

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out to the water
quality managers

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through a smartphone application
that we've developed.

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So the app allows you
to drop to pinpoint,

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and that pin can be
placed in an area

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where drinking water treatment
plant may have an intake,

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and see what the current
water quality conditions were.

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Each user gets that
information near real time,

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so they can make judgment
calls on whether they have

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to respond or take action.

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Having the HICO

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on the International Space
Station has been the ideal test

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bed for our research.

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This is an amazing partnership.

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The Naval Research
Laboratory had HICO

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on NASA's International
Space Station.

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As HICO acquired a
scene, it was transferred

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to the Naval Research
Laboratory,

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and then the Environmental
Protection Agency was able

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to do the analysis
and validation

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to send this information

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out through a prototype
mobile application.

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Yes, this technology
will reduce costs

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and provide near
real-time information.

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But the big goal here
is protecting humans